I happened to catch this commercial recently for the new BlackBerry Torch. At first, I couldn’t really tell with the guy’s helmet whether or not the courier was Asian since the commercial doesn’t focus on the his face for too long. But through some Internet sleuthing, I discovered the biker is Asian. In fact, Japanese American Fergus Tanaka is not only not an actor and a bike messenger, but he’s also the current president of the San Francisco Bike Messenger association!
You know, if I hadn’t been living in the Bay Area for the past 11 years, I would have been surprised to see an Asian American as a bike messenger and would have experienced what I have termed, the Californian Asian American Culture Shock.
What I love about this commercial is that it takes place in San Francisco. I recognized a lot of the streets, hills, buildings and neighborhoods of the city, including Chinatown. The last time I noticed a commercial that featured San Francisco was a Sony Bravia HDTV LCD commercial that ironically never aired in the U.S. (I’m told it aired only in Europe).
